Salsa Nocturna

A delicate mix of horror and humor permeates this striking and original set of 13 linked supernatural noir tales. Carlos Delacruz is “barely alive at all, a botched resurrection, trapped in perpetual ambiguity.” Naturally, he works as a soulcatcher for New York City’s Council of the Dead. Carlos and Gordo, an old Cubano who finds musical inspiration among the muertos, serve as common threads in a tapestry depicting the growing restlessness of the dead under the Council’s bureaucratic rule. Colorfully depicted New York neighborhoods are secretly populated by an army of ghosts—including birds, mysterious giants, and the trapped souls of an African burial ground—as well as the eccentric soulcatchers themselves. Older gracefully draws together the stories of a young man who finds an unnerving set of dolls at his girlfriend’s home, a child abuse survivor out for revenge, and serial killers both spectral and human, securing himself a place among the rising stars of the genre. (July)